By BRYSON LUFF

Citing lack of player numbers and a lack of commitment the Trangie Magpies have withdrawn from the 2022 Christie and Hood Castlereagh League competition.

The Magpies officially made the call last Friday, informing Castlereagh officials that they could not guarantee that they would have sufficient player numbers to remain viable for the rest of the year, and as such they made the difficult decision to call it quits in both league tag and first grade for this year, with the hope that they might be able to rebuild and apply for re-entry to the competition in 2023.

This is another blow to not only the Castlereagh League competition, but also to rugby league in the bush, and it follows the collapse of the once mighty Coonabarabran Unicorns club just days prior to commencement of the 2022 competition.

“Obviously Trangie’s withdrawal midway through our competition is far from ideal, but we will have to just deal with it and get on with it as best we can”, said Castlereagh League secretary Bryson Luff.

“A revamp of the draw for the remaining ten rounds of the competition is highly unlikely, with grounds already booked so it would seem that there will be additional byes for clubs that were drawn to play Trangie” Luff added.

“There will be meeting of all clubs next week to discuss the matter and what to do in terms of for and against points for the games that Trangie have played in, and the ones that they were due to play in.”

“We hope to see the Magpies back in action again in the near future and wish them well in the attempts to rebuild their club” Luff concluded.

The withdrawal of Trangie saw Dunedoo receive an unexpected bye last Saturday whilst at Cobar the Roosters proved to be too strong for the Narromine Jets, running in 11 tries in their big 60 to 16 win to strongly reinforce their current number one standing on the competition ladder.

Gilgandra v Coonamble

At Gilgandra a big crowd was treated to a cracker jack game between the Panthers and their arch rivals, the Coonamble Bears.

With the lead changing on numerous occasions it was to be the home side that just managed to finish in front at fulltime taking the highly entertaining game 32 to 28, scoring six tries to five in the process.

The Panthers front rower Anthony Harris was a standout for the victors along with their five-eight DJ Smith whilst Smith’s opposite, Jack Kelly was amongst the Bears best along with Jacob Fernando, who scored three tries, in the centres.

The Bears narrow loss could well be the stimulus that they need to upset the Cobar Roosters who they will host in the match of the round this Saturday.

The Bears are a tough proposition at home at any time, and they will be out to re-assert themselves as a real premiership contender against the competition front runners in front of their parochial and vocal home crowd.

The Baradine Magpies will be celebrating their 100^th year anniversary in style on Saturday night and they will have a big home crowd spurring them on in their match against Gilgandra during the afternoon hoping for an early start to their revelry by way of a victory over the Panthers.

Christie and Hood Castlereagh League Round 8 scores

League Tag

Baradine 48 (Ashanti Pennell 2, Savannah Carey 2, Stephanie Bowling, Meg Walton, Madison Masman, Jorja Carey tries, Pennel, Anna Arndell 2 goals) defeated Binnaway 12 (Lisa Jones, Lila Strong tries, Jones 2 goals)

Narromine 30 (Jacana Powell 3, Lily Spackman, Logan McKenna-Maidens, Lucy Dawson tries, Jannalie Dwyer 2, Spackman goals) defeated Cobar 6 (Georgia Boland try, Brianna Watson goal)

Coonamble 26 (Hannah Towns 3, Jessica Solomon, Shakaye Walker tries, Tori Canham 3 goals) defeated Gilgandra 20 (Mab Fuller 2, Shian Chatfield tries, Shian Chatfield 3, Talitha Chatfield goals)

Competition ladder

Dunedoo 22, Baradine 21, Narromine 20, Gilgandra 18, Gulgong 18, Coonamble 16, Cobar 13, Binnaway 9.

Rugby League

Cobar 60 (Ash Davies 3, Ben Griffiths 3, Jack Brown 2, Tim Hillam, Thomas Plater, Loma Atuah tries, Plater 5, David Watson 3 goals) defeated Narromine 16 (Janus Walford, Luke Thompson, Kyle Smith tries, Walford 2 goals)

Gilgandra 32 (David Smith 2, Luke Ritchie, Jamie Towney, Curtis Carr, Mitch Bamblett tries, Smith 3, Brandon Hammond goals) defeated Coonamble 28 (Jacob Fernando 3, Mark Jones, Jack Kelly tries, Fernando 4 goals)

Competition ladder

Cobar 22, Gilgandra 20, Coonamble 19, Gulgong 19, Narromine 18, Dunedoo 18, Baradine 13.

Round 9

Saturday 25^th June

Baradine V Gilgandra, Coonamble V Cobar, Dunedoo V Binnaway, Gulgong bye, Narromine bye